Posted on 11/02/2019 10:30:19 PM PDT by rintintin
WASHINGTON — Tyler Wade was awarded the Purple Heart while serving in Afghanistan, and says he is “proud of everything” he did during his service. He also believes the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were a mistake, as do a growing number of veterans — from retired generals to those who served across the enlisted ranks, from supporters of President Trump to “resistance” Democrats.
“All in all, it is a lot of wasted lives and money and time and effort spent to accomplish a goal we never accomplished,” said Mr. Wade, 31, who was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan during his five years in the Marines and is now a nursing student in Las Vegas.
Nearly two decades after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, polls show that a majority of all veterans have grown disenchanted with the continuing wars, even if the national security elite in both parties continue to press for an American military presence in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The view is in stark contrast to widespread support for the wars across the military and veterans community — and the general population — when President George W. Bush first sent American troops to Afghanistan and then Iraq.
The shifting attitudes of so many who served in the wars help explain why Mr. Trump has support among veterans as he brings troops home and has resisted military action against other nations. There is a slow but steadily increasing alliance of those on the left and the right on Capitol Hill to curb what Mr. Trump calls “endless wars.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
We don’t send our guys in to win anymore.
Just let them get killed over years and years and years and years.
In places we shouldn’t be.
When there’s a real existential threat from an enemy, hit the hard, kill everybody and get it over with as fast as possible.
It took some years in WWII.
But imagine if WWII was fought with a million “rules of engagement” and you can’t destroy that shrine or that building or that city.
It would have been a 12 year war.
“But imagine if WWII was fought with a million “rules of engagement” and you can’t destroy that shrine or that building or that city.”
The Brits operated under such rules for a while. That lasted until the Nazis started killing Brits from the protected structures.
L
“We don’t send our guys in to win anymore.”
How do you “win” when the goal is “nation-building” in a Muslim country with no history of democratic institutions?
these wars - Iraq, Libya and Syria - simply brought chaos by destroying the existing order. there was never any “winning” to be achieved, merely destruction.
these wars were stupid ideas, by Bush, Obama, Hillary and McCain.
Initially during the spring and early summer of 1940 while the Luftwaffe was conducting it’s first bombing raids on England the RAF was dropping leaflets trying to convince the Germans that war was a terrible thing and what a bad idea it was that they had started one. It left Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering to chortle that “The RAF has achieved in supplying the continent with more than it’s ration of toilet paper’’.
“How do you “win” when the goal is “nation-building” in a Muslim country with no history of democratic institutions?”
It’s the latest version of “making the world safe for democracy”. Which is of course quite impossible. The world is an inherently unsafe place and it will be until Jesus returns.
The best we can hope for right now is that the bad actors in the world are so scared of us they don’t dare attack. That should be the extent of our involvement in the ****holes of the world. That should be the cornerstone of our foreign policy.
L
More like a 120 year war.
2. The deep state's long term goal seems to be to declare war on Russia. Hillary's state department and Obama's foreign policy made a lot of progress in this regard. They staged a successful coup against the legally, but pro Russia, government of Ukraine, Russia's next door neighbor. They entered Syria with the pretense of fighting ISIS, but a stated goal of forcing Assad to step down. Syria is where Russia's last foreign base is located.
Yeah I didn’t know what number to put but you’re right
I was gonna say “but nukes”.
But we have plenty of nukes and are in a 20 year war
I CANT BELIEVE I supported the Iraq invasion.
I REALLY pictured them eating burger and listening to hard rock in a year.
And I was wondering, if the Sauds are part of this, why Iraq?
And if you’re gonna do that, send in 400,000 troops and lay down the law.
Ah, I could go on forever. It was a DISASTER and we need to get out and let special forces kill some bad guys when needed.
Get out of here, really?
I thought they were pretty ruthless.
I guess that stopped in the 1800s
I really dont know :)
I know at ONE time they were ruthless, but might have been 500 year ago :)
It would have been a 12 year war.
Who knows how long it would have lasted, but I would guess we might all be speaking German, Russian, Japanese or Chinese.
Instead of troops, we need to parachute in college professors, IRS agents, lawyers, Facebook & Google moderators, etc. to teach them diversity, compassion, & fairness.
Oh, and telephone sanitizers, too, while we’re at it.
So is nation building instead of killing the enemy.
Yes our government took the path of nation building in a 7th century region where goats can still be your girl friend and lost.
Trump’s Opposition to ‘Endless Wars’ Appeals to Those Who Fought Them
Muslims know this and are sharpening their sticks waiting for the s’mores to offer themselves up.
Solution: brutality - kill them all before they kill us. The history of war is that the longer one side waits to fight back, the stronger the opponent becomes, the higher the casualties. The last big war was measured in the tens of millions in dead in combat, while civilians deaths reached almost the same numbers. And the next? Hundreds of millions? Billions?
“Ceterum autem censeo Islamem esse delendam” - Cato the Censor (with modifications).
Actually, the tragedy is that we did accomplish the goals for Iraq and then let Barak Obama sabotage the peace and deliver Iraq to ISIS on a silver platter
Or how long if troops were not allowed to fire on the enemy unless fired on AND suffered a wound or death? Per Obama ROEs.
We send our kids out to fight to profit corporations who donate to the swamp
Yeah that was a crazy statement, 12 years.
With Afghanistan’s rules of engagement, it would have gone on forever, nukes aside.
Yeah I was very said the day I figure that out.
And far too old to figure that out. In my mid to late 30s
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